When it comes to elapsed time, top-speed runs down the three-quarter-mile Lake of the Ozarks Shootout course in Central Missouri are best expressed in seconds. In 2024, for example, the Factory Billet team of Jim Schultz and Mike Faucher covered the course—by their own account—in 16 to 17 seconds and reached an astounding top speed of 186 mph.
Rob Locker and his teammates will defend their title off the Isle of Wight next weekend. Photo by Ashton Coker copyright Good Boy Vodka.
But when it comes to the 220-mile Cowes-Torquay-Cowes endurance race off the Isle of Wight in the United Kingdom, elapsed times are best expressed in hours and fractions thereof. Rob Lockyer and company, last year’s overall Cowes-Torquay-Cowes champions, completed the roundtrip journey in roughly two-and-a-half hours.
There are other significant contrasts between the two events. Even during endurance-racing weekend when the place is loaded with exuberant powerboat racers from across the United Kingdom and Europe, Cowes is a quiet town. The Lake of the Ozarks during Shootout week is anything but.
Both events often boast rough-water. But on their worst days, Lake of the Ozarks conditions are docile compared to those typically encountered off the Isle of Wight.
Atlantic Ocean versus Lake of the Ozarks. The math is pretty simple.
Both events are on tap this weekend. And while Schultz and Faucher and their 51-foot Outerlimits V-bottom are out for the Shootout this time around, Lockyer and his team will be defending their 2025 title in Lockyer’s 52-footer from the Bristol, R.I., company.
Though I missed the Factory Billet achievement in 2024, former speedonthewater.com co-publisher covered it for the daily news site that year—and Scrapyard Media chronicled the historic accomplishment. I was in Cowes that weekend watching Lockyer, Good Boy Vodka’s Alex Pratt and performance-boat enthusiast Shane Franks compete in Lockyer’s 52-foot Outerlimits.
I returned to Cowes in 2025. Johnson covered the Shootout again as only he can—his impeccable work during the years earned him a legitimate place in the Bob Morgan Memorial Lake of the Ozarks Shootout Hall of Fame.
But that year in Cowes, Lockyer, Pratt and teammates Kirk Britto and Timothy Linden would not be denied. And was lucky enough to witness it in person.
Locker will be joined this year in his Team 25/Good Boy Vodka V-bottom by Linden, Charlie Williams and Adrian De Ferranti .
“Tim will be driving and I will be throttling,” Lockyer said, then chuckled. “Not sure what Charlie and Adrian are doing.”
Though Lockyer’s longtime friend Simon Williams of GoGPS, once again the presenting sponsor for the Cowes affair, will be there to cheer them on, I will not. I’m on a plane bound for Springfield, Mo., and then off to Shootout till Thursday morning. Speedonthewater.com correspondent Eric Colby arrives Friday to cover the weekend competition.
By any measure, it’s a big weekend in powerboat racing on both sides of the pond.